This story mainly depicts the close, harmonious love life of university professor Yin Mingzhe and his female graduate student Duan Caiyun. They work hand in hand through teaching, research, technology transfer, academic exchanges, promotion, and the choice of workplace, overcoming difficulties and understanding one another completely. Though their hearts are as one, they are fated not to be together. When disaster looms, they make the painful choice to part so that the other may be spared. The story also weaves in Yin Mingzhe's ill-fated, deeply devoted romance with his soulmate Yao Lan during their youth, when they depended on each other through life and death. Duan Caiyun and Yao Lan have entirely different personalities, yet seem like one and the same person. The two romances have no direct connection, yet are bound together, cause and effect, flesh and blood.